The present invention relates to an artificial honeycomb and specifically relates to an improved molded plastic honeycomb for use in replacing the existing wooden or plastic honeycombs currently in use.
In the prior art there have been previous attempts made to replace the natural combs formed by a colony of bees by supporting structures for use by the colony of bees to deposit honey. As an example, in the past, a plurality of wooden frames have been mounted in a super and with one or more supers used to form a beehive. The colony of bees would build up a wax foundation of cells to form the honeycomb and with the bees depositing the honey or their eggs in the built-up wax foundation. As a further improvement in the prior art, there have been bee comb foundation frames and with the foundation frames receiving a molded starter sheet of wax and with the bees building upon this starter sheet of wax to form the full honeycomb structure to receive the honey.
In other prior art structures, a molded plastic comb foundation having a cellular configuration is provided and with the bees building the remaining wax foundation upon the cellular configuration to form the individual honeycombs. In all of the prior art structures actually sold in the trade, the artificial honeycomb is not complete and the bees must still expend some time and energy in completing the foundation structure and must therefore build wax cells walls before honey can be deposited. It would be desirable to provide for an artificial molded honeycomb structure which is an accurate simulation of a natural cell so that the initial energy output from the bees is primarily for depositing honey and eggs rather than building the wax foundation.